As a photographer, if there’s one thing I love the most about spring it’s the end of the dull and dreary weather which dominates the winter months. Spring is full of new life, with flowers and plants coming out of their hibernation and bursting forward in their full technicolour glory providing my camera with a much more interesting pallet of colours to capture along with the beautiful family portraits I’m commissioned to capture. And as a family portrait photographer the Sussex countryside around Horsham and Christ’s Hospital is full of opportunity for beautiful photography, both for the portrait photographer and for the seasoned walkers amongst us.
So it was with great pleasure that Paul and Hannah asked me to capture a family portrait as a memento of their son reaching his sixth month, I was more than pleased to oblige. We arranged the photo shoot and prayed for the weather to hold (the forecast wasn’t looking great) typical of the season and English weather it started to rain just as I left for the shoot. Fortunately Paul and Hannah aren’t of the faint hearted variety and we went ahead with the walk and shoot regardless of the rain.
In the bluebells
After a short stomp into the woods we came across a clearing simply full of bluebells, and I don’t exaggerate…they were everywhere! I’ve been on a few location shoots where there has been the promise of ‘a carpet of bluebells’ but this spot was the first to truly meet my expectations. We quickly captured a few family photos, some posed near the ground (staying out of the wet) and some sitting on a fallen tree, before moving on to look for any further photography locations, I led us up onto the path next to a rape field, full of yellow blooms, which contrasted beautifully with the shade and blue of the bluebells in the forest. So a few more family portraits were taken to make the most of the sun breaking through the clouds for a couple of moments, in between the downpours.
Beautiful family portrait
All in all, one of my favourite family location photo shoots with a beautiful family and ‘interesting’ weather.
